OSHAWA,
June 25, 2003 - Freedom Party of Ontario
Leader, Paul McKeever, took exception today to Ernie Eves most recent
shirking of responsibility.
Ernie Eves yesterday
said that things will work out “if” there is some divine
intervention. The Canadian Press quoted Eves yesterday as saying:

“If everybody continues to be energy conservation conscious (and)
the individual up above gives us a little help, "I'm confident everything
will work out."

Paul McKeever says that such an attitude is entirely
unacceptable for a Premier. “On Wednesday, we are expected to use up nearly all
of the 25000 megawatts of power that is available to Ontario. The IMO
is already planning rolling black-outs in case there isn’t enough
electricity for everyone to use at the same time. And what do we get
from the premier? A plea for God to intervene. I suppose, then, that
Mr. Eves will consider it to be God’s fault if the power goes off
in some places today? This is perhaps the most irresponsible premier
in history.”

The Freedom Party of Ontario Leader blasts both Mr. Eves
personally, and the history of Progressive Conservative governments
on this file
generally. “We’re in the pickle we’re in because of
decades of Progressive Conservative governments that took the Commanding
Heights view of electricity: the socialist view that the government should
own it all, run it all, put a large chunk of the cost of electricity
on the government credit card, and thereby control an important aspect
of the economy. The minority blue-Tory faction in the PC party wisely
sought to change that, but the red-Tories have pushed back, imposing
price controls and promising to leave them in place until at least 2006.
Now, power generation investors have been scared off: they are afraid
their profits will be capped or eliminated. Make no mistake, Eves and
decades of red-Tory rule are to blame for this mess.”

McKeever says the only solution is a political re-alignment. “Blue
tories broke away from the federal PCs years ago. It’s time to
finish the job provincially too. Freedom Party has an open door policies
for Tories who see the critical importance of a free market for electricity.
The time to act is now, before we’ve all got power limiters on
our houses. The last thing that Ontario’s economy needs right now
is Electricare.”

Paul
McKeever (who will be running in the riding of Oshawa, against
Sid Ryan and Jerry Ouellette) is available to discuss this matter
today. You can
contact
him
directly at ***-***-**** (cell).

Freedom
Party is expected to run candidates in approximately half of Ontario's
ridings in the coming election.